Kazakhstan earns three points with difficult

After a beautiful and colourful ceremony to officially open the championship, Kazakhstan and Slovenia cross the stick in a packed Barys arena. Both teams are members of the “elevator” club, traditionally going up and down from Elite Division. The post-season missed by Los Angeles Kings means the important addition of Anze Kopitar in the roster for Slovenia. Home team, with all the pressure on it, can count on some of naturalized players, with the notable absence of Kevin Dallman and Nigel Dawns, two of the best players in KHL.

Kazakhstan opens the score at 03:54 with fans favourite Nikita Mikhalys, gently deflected in the net a pass from Darren Dietz.  After surviving a power play and wasting a chance with Anton Sagadeyev, home team doubles with a shot from Anton Nekraych, with goalie Matija Pintaric not perfectly positioned. Slovenia goalie has no responsibility on third goal suffered, scored again by Nikita Mikhalys. Slovenia doesn’t find the right chemistry on the ice to face an aggressive opponent, despite the efforts of Kopitar.

Nikita Mikhalis scoring the third goal for Kazakhstan

The aggressiveness of Kazakhstan grows up in the central period, home team is constantly in the opponent’s defensive zone and the best scoring chances for Bochenski and Metalnikov. After a couple of chances more for home team, suddenly in the final minutes of the period Slovenia resurrects, scoring twice in a minute: at 37:03 Anze Kuralt finishes a pass from Ken Ograjnsek and on power play at 38:24 David Rodman beats Karlsson served by Kopitar, silencing the arena.

The last period begins with a great chance for Evgeny Rymarev, firing on Pintaric and it is the part of the game more balanced, with chances for both teams and Slovenia more on attack. The last minutes are an heartbeat for the fans: Slovenia pulls the goalie and bravely sieges the goal of Karlsson with a great chances to tie with 10 seconds to play and Karlsson blocking the very last attempt by Magovac.

Kazakhstan suffers to earn the first three points after a brilliant first period, but Slovenia was a tough opponent, hard to beat for any team aiming to promotion

Ivo Jan (SLO): “The first period was the breaking point of this game, we played well in the second and third, but we weren’t on ice in the first and at this level it’s impossible to concede a period to the opponent. We spoke a lot before to come here about the importance of playing well in the first game. I don’t realize exactly because we freeze in the first period, surely, we took stupid penalties and we know their power play was very effective and so it was”

Andrei Skabelka (KAZ): “Team Slovenia was a very good team and winning the first game of the tournament is very important, even in the second period in my opinion we played well, at least offensively, we didn’t relax. The third period was hard and we didn’t produced too many offensive chances but we manage to win the game and that’s important”

MVP: Anze Kopitar – Nikita Mikhalis

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